Water pumps handed over

IMPHAL, Oct 10: Following the assessment and the identification of 16,236 hectares of paddy fields in Imphal East District under acute shortage of rainfall/water, the State Agriculture Department started distributing water pumps to the farmers today, to minimize the problem at the earliest.The Department has also labelled 10,000 hectares (out of the 16,236 hectares) in Imphal East as severely affected by drought like situation.Speaking to media persons while distributing water pumps at Saijang, Imphal East, the Department of Agriculture Director Ph Rajendro informed that the Department performed an assessment of paddy fields after it received information and complaints about the development of cracks in the fields due to shortage of rainfall/water.He asserted that under the instruction of the Chief Minister, the Department started distributing water pumps at the affected places/localities so as to save some of the standing paddy crops from complete loss.He went on to inform that water pumps were initially distributed at Saijang after identifying certain areas where paddy fields have been badly affected by the shortage of water.Around 30 water pumps will be distributed in the areas which are experiencing water shortage, he maintained and added that the water pumps will be handed through District Agriculture Officers of the respected areas.Admitting that there were some communication gap between the Department officials, Rajendro stated that the Department could have take up preventive measures if information about water shortage was received in time.Informing that there is an insurance scheme for the farmers, he appealed to the farmers of the State to inform the agriculture officers concerned about the condition of their crops at the time of cultivation so that Crop Cutting Experiment (CCE) can be done to assess the quantity of crops damaged.